From Here to Eternity_ The Restored Edit - Jones, James [71]
It was Warden’s turn to stare uncomprehendingly. He uncrossed his legs and took the dresses off his head and got up and went over to her, thinking that somewhere he had judged this whole thing wrong, that Leva had been wrong, that this was something that had never come within his realm of knowledge.
“There,” he said helplessly. “There. There,” feeling the absurdity, the oppressive impossibility of any human being trying to communicate with and understand another’s mind in a life where nothing was ever what it seemed to be. “Please dont cry,” he said, searching vainly for a word, “I cant stand to see somebody cry.”
“You dont know what its like,” Karen said, shivering and whimpering like a puppy in the rain. “The two of them. Its more than anyone was made to stand.”
“Ah,” Warden said, wondering how in hell he had gotten mixed up in this deal in the first place. He put his arm around her. “Its all right. He’s gone. There,” he said. “There.” Her breast, lying in his cupped palm, was warm and soft like a young bird quivering with fearful trustfulness.
“Dont do that,” she said, pulling irritably away from him. “You dont know. You dont even care. Its nothing to you. A piece of ass. Another pussy to be poked. What is it to you? Leave me alone.”
“Okay,” he said. He stood up and went to get his pants, feeling almost relieved.
“What are you doing?” she cried at him frantically.
“I’m leaving,” Warden said. “Wasnt that what you wanted?”
“Dont you want me either?”
Now what the hell, he thought. “Sure,” he said. “Hell yes. I thought you wanted me to leave.”
“I do,” she said, “if you want to. Go ahead. I dont want to force you into anything. I dont blame you, I dont blame you a bit. Why would you want to stay? Since I’m not even a woman any more.”
“You’re a woman,” Warden said, looking at her in the thin kimono. “All woman. Take it from me.”
“Not to anyone but you,” she said. “I’m nothing. I cant even work. Theres nowhere in the world I’m needed.”
“You’re needed,” Warden said, coming back and sitting down by her. “In this world beautiful women are needed more than any other thing.”
“Thats what men always say. Needed to be some man’s beautiful whore. But I’m not even that.”
“You’ve got a nice suntan,” he said, running his hand across her back, hearing the rain outside. “This is the kind of day to be laying on the beach at Kaneohe. It wont be raining there.”
“I dont like Kaneohe,” Karen said. “Its damn near as public and as crowded as that goddam Waikiki.”
“Ah,” he said, “but I know a little beach near Blowhole that is private. Nobody knows about it. Nobody ever goes there. You climb down the cliff wall and there is a little inlet with a sand beach, suddenly, firm and smooth and the rock wall towering above you so the cars on the highway pass just above and they never know its there. You feel like you use to feel when you were a kid and hid by yourself in a cave of bushes and watched the others hunting you. You dont even need to wear a bathing suit at this place, and you can get tanned all over.”
“Will you take me there?” she said.
“What?” he said. “Sure. Sure, I’ll take you there.”
“And can we go at night? and swim there in the moonlight and then lie on the little beach? and you love me there where nobody can see us or know that we are there?”
“Sure. Sure,” he said. “We’ll do all that.”
“Oh, I’d love to do that,” Karen said, looking at him worshipfully. “Nobody’s ever done anything like that with me. Do you really want to take me?”
“Sure,” Warden said. “When you want to go?”
“Next week. Lets go next weekend. I’ll take Dana’s car and meet you someplace in town. We’ll get some sandwiches and take some beer.” She smiled at him radiantly and put her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“Okay,” Warden said. He returned the kiss, feeling hungrily under his hands the long twin muscles along her spine running from the tiny waist up to the wideness of the shoulders, feeling